Astralis Win ELEAGUE Major CS:GO Crown

11 April 2017 13:48

After being labelled choke artists following disappointing performances in previous CS:GO championships, Danish team Astralis have finally conquered their personal demons and won the ELEAGUE Major title- the most coveted title in all of CS:GO.

With star performer Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz side-lined, the entire team pulled together to come out victorious in potentially the most exciting final the tournament has ever seen. Astralis were widely regarded as the best team on the planet coming into this tournament, but the doubters said this was just “by default” with no recognised competition. Defending champions SK Gaming were always a threat, but they were knocked out in the semi-final by eventual second-place team Virtus.Pro.

In the final it was Virtus.Pro who started out the better, taking a 9-6 lead out to halftime on Nuke. Following a few force buy wins and some clutches, Astralis managed to bring it back to 12-12 before Virtus.Pro took another eco win and eventually ran out 16-12 winners. Moving onto Overpass it was Astralis who jumped to 9-6 at halftime before it was again brought back to be neck and neck at 14-14. Kjaerbye, one of Astralis’ newest acquisitions, took a crucial 1v1 against Snax to allow the Danish team to sneak the second map 16-14 to set up a final round decider. And where better to decide it than Train?

The round started poorly for Astralis, losing the first 7 games before eventually pulling it back to 9-6 at the half in favour of Virtus.Pro. Losing another pistol round was almost the final nail in the coffin for the Danes as they went down 12-6 but, quite incredibly, Astralis fought all the way back to be down just two games 14-12. It was this exact same scenario that Astralis had seen pass them by in previous years to give them the choker reputation, and without their team leader and best player it seemed they would be doomed to the same fate once again. Somehow, with newfound confidence and tactics, Astralis reeled off 4 straight round wins to take the round 16-14 and the championship 2:1.

A pay day of $500,000 followed, taking Astralis to more than $1,300,000 in total earnings in just over a year of professional play. Being one of the first player-owned teams, it’s great to see them finally get the recognition and the titles that they deserve and hopefully will set a trend for the teams of the future.

Over a million viewers tuned in over the course of the tournament on Twitch, rising above the half million who watched last year’s tournament. This year the event took place in Atlanta, Georgia, drawing capacity crowds at almost every meeting.